One of the biggest stories from this past weekend was the play of the Boston College Eagles. They entered the weekend with a .500 record at 18-18 while being 6-11 in ACC play. The expectation this weekend was that the 24th ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets would come in and beat up on the Eagles who were missing their top offensive bat Chris Shaw and a weekend arm in Jeff Burke.
Things didn’t work out as expected though for the Yellow Jackets who struggled throughout the weekend against the Eagles pitching staff who were on their game.
On Friday, sophomore Mike King pitched a complete game one hit shutout while the Eagles were able to scratch across a second inning run on a bloop single by Blake Butera to left field. King was able to keep the Yellow Jackets off balance as they had several poor at bats and were frozen at the plate striking out eight times.
Saturday’s game was more of the same as senior John Gorman went seven strong innings giving up only one run while striking out eight batters. Leading the offense was Johnny Adams who drove in two runs from the bottom of the order.
The Eagles pitching continued to dominate on Sunday as Jesse Adams allowed only one hit in his seven shutout innings of work while John Nicklas and Justin Dunn finished off the final two innings to shutout the Yellow Jackets for the second time in three games. Johnny Adams was the leader at the plate again going 2-4 with an RBI.
So is Boston College really a better team without their potential first round pick Chris Shaw?
Nope, but they have a much different type of lineup now without Shaw. Fifth year head coach Mike Gambino stated the following on how his offensive strategy has changed “We can now hit and run, steal a base, or get some action going on as we don’t have to worry about the opponent pitching around Chris.”
The most impressive part though from the Eagles this weekend was the quality of the pitching staff. Giving up only one run to the 24th ranked team in the nation which was fourth in the ACC in hitting coming into the weekend is impressive.
Sophomore Mike King was lights out on Friday for the Eagles and had the best pitching performance for the Eagles since they joined the ACC back in 2005. Heading into the season, King was expected to be in the weekend rotation but an early season injury limited him to the bullpen.
If King can continue to pitch like the ace he did on Friday, BC is a team that will contend for an NCAA bid. According to BoydsWorld on Monday, BC is at 50 in the RPI while being in a tie for seventh place in the highly competitive ACC.
Gambino is excited to see where this team can take them saying “There is something really special going on in this clubhouse. I’m not sure I’ve ever been around a team as closely knit as this one. It really does feel like a family and that is what is fueling this ball cub. No matter what gets thrown at them — crazy snow this winter , moving home games, losing a Friday night starter and the best hitter in college baseball in the same week — the attitude among the guys is we can handle it together and we will pick each other up. When you combine that with the fact that we are a pretty good club then I think we can have some fun down the stretch.”
The Eagles schedule the rest of the year features trips to North Carolina and Virginia Tech while hosting Notre Dame to end the season. Each of those three series will be key to improving the Boston College NCAA resume as each of those teams is within a game of the Eagles in ACC play.
